


Fearmonger

by ToasterLord



Category: Scooby Doo - All Media Types
Genre: Crimes & Criminals, Fear, Gen, Murder, Mystery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2019-01-16
Packaged: 2019-06-01 07:09:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 13,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15137855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToasterLord/pseuds/ToasterLord
Summary: Shaggy has encountered something supernatural. Something he hadn't seen since his childhood. The gang, unfortunately, don't believe him. The problem is, even if this is just a guy in a costume, how on Earth did he learn what Shaggy was secretly most afraid of?





	1. Fear Buried Deep

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first ever story that I've shared publicly. I know that it isn't the best but I'm writing multiple chapters and hope to improve my skills as a writer :) any notes and improvements are greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading!

Shaggy, like always, felt hungry. Stretching, he got out of bed and padded to the kitchen. Luckily he had made an extra-large pastrami and mayo sub before he had slept just for such an occasion. He just needed to fetch one last drink as well. The gang had celebrated late into the night after their last mystery, and Shaggy may have put down one too many. Well why shouldn’t he? It was probably the most complex mystery they had solved yet! Who would have guessed that the son was actually the wife in disguise? Still a little woozy, he poured himself a glass of ice cold water from the tap. He gazed out the window into the night as he drank.

And instantly dropped his glass.

Out in the dark garden stood a woman. She was draped in dark, sodden cloth from head to toe, a tattered hood obscuring most of her pale, blotchy face and all but a few dangling strands of long greasy black hair. She just… stood there, robes flapping in the wind, one arm outstretched in front of her. She was pointing directly at him.  
Shaggy began to shiver, trembling uncontrollably. He stepped back.

"No…” he choked out.

He could see her mouth move, uttering words he hadn’t heard since he was a child. He couldn’t hear her, but he knew what she was saying. Those awful words. The words he had heard whispered into his ears every night as a child. All he could do was stare as the wind around her began to rush faster, her robes whipping about in a frenzy. Shaggy could hear the rush of air shake the windows and begin howling in his ears. It was so unbelievably loud, almost deafening. He clutched at his face, unable to tear away from the horrific apparition

“Raggy?"

The noise made Shaggy scream and crash backwards into the cupboard. Frantically looking round, he saw a concerned Scooby standing in the doorway.

“Ru okay?” he asked cautiously.

Shaggy stood back up as quickly as he fell, not even acknowledging the cuts he got from the fallen glass. Wordlessly, he scanned the garden for any signs of the unnatural.

 

She had gone.


	2. Disbelief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shaggy tells the gang what he saw. But will they believe him?

“What’s up Shaggy? You sounded pretty serious on the phone” 

Fred sat down at the table opposite Shaggy. Daphne and Velma joined Scooby on the booth seats on either side of the table.

“Shaggy you look awful! What happened last night?” Daphne gasped.

Shaggy had a bandage wrapped round his injured hand, and his eyes had dark bags underneath them. His hair was unkempt and dirty, not having been washed since the previous night. He stared at her over the top of another pint of beer and a bowl of fries.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you” he murmured.

“Well, we’ve certainly seen a lot over the years. Give it your best shot” Fred smiled sympathetically.

Shaggy sighed.

“I saw something. Something from my childhood. Something that is, like, worse than anything we’ve ever seen, man”  
He glanced around at the gang.  
“It’s like, my worst fear. In person. This freaky ghost woman in robes. She was just in the garden after so long” he grumbled.

After a stunned silence, Velma piped up.

“Well that sounds like the Gloomy Grunge Girl from a few months ago. Maybe whoever was in your garden had a connection with her and is trying to get back at us”

Shaggy looked at her quickly.

“What?”

“Hey yeah!” Fred agreed, “maybe she had a daughter or a friend that was in on the plan. We could gauge that by how old she was. Shaggy, do you know roughly how old this woman was?”

“It wasn’t just a… are you even listening?” Shaggy gaped.

“Ruh-roh” Scooby shook his head.

“I could check back and look at the suspects we didn’t question before” Daphne smiled, swiftly unlocking her phone to make a call.

“Good idea Daph, we can start by going to the jail tomorrow to question the Grunge Girl. This mystery is solving itself!” Fred sat back in his chair contently.

“Like, no it isn’t” Shaggy barked. 

The group looked at him, stunned. 

“I saw something out there that only I’ve seen before. How could that? I’m telling you guys this is REAL!”

The gang shifted in their seats, not looking him directly in the eyes. Shaggy’s arms fell to his side.

“You still don’t believe me”

“It’s not that we don’t believe you saw something,” Velma started, “But almost every strange thing we’ve encountered is just someone in a costume”

Shaggy picked up and slammed his drink into the table, spilling its contents entirely. 

“It wasn’t just some guy in a costume!” he yelled, “They knew exactly what this… thing was! They knew exactly what I was…” 

He stopped suddenly when he had realised what he had done.

“D...Daphne I’m so sorry” he stuttered.

*

Daphne was covered in the wave of beer and fry bits. She sat frozen, mouth open in shock.

“I’ve… I’ve gotta go” Shaggy hastily exited the bar, Scooby following close behind. The rest of the gang sat in silence.

“You ok Daph?” Fred asked.

“Yeah, I’m just gonna go clean up” she sighed.

Heading through the quiet hubbub of the bar, Daphne made her way to the bathroom. As she entered the empty room, she immediately strode to the sink. Looking down, she tutted at the extent of the damage; her purple designer dress was soaked in beer and pieces of fries were stuck to it. She’d have to get a new one. Oh well, best try to make the most of it. She turned on the hot tap and put her hand under it, only to yell out a yelp and pull it back. It was ice cold. Shivering slightly, she gazed around the dimly lit white tiled room while the water heated up. On the wall opposite the mirror was one of those dispenser machines. This one sold mini Scooby Snack™ keychains. Smiling slightly, she deposited a quarter into it. It would be a good reconciliation gift for Shaggy. After all, they weren’t very supportive of him. After twisting the dial, she waited for the chain to fall. Nothing. Well this day just got better and better. She turned the dial again, even resorting to slapping the side of the machine. Still nothing. Disappointed, she turned once again to the sink, placing her hands in the lukewarm water. 

Upon looking up to the mirror, she let out a piercing scream.

A spectral woman stood behind her, a ghostly aura radiating off her. She was dressed in a white Elizabethan style wedding dress, except the front was stained a dark crimson. Blood. Her skin was a pale white, contrasting with the once elegant black curls that fell about her head. Her wide eyes stared deep into Daphne’s own terrified ones. As Daphne fixated on her with horror, the apparition opened its mouth to let out an unearthly scream. The wail echoed around the bathroom, shaking the mirror and causing the lights to flicker. It reached out to Daphne with a bloodstained gloved hand.

Without hesitation, Daphne ducked into the nearest stall, looking the door behind her and retreating as far as she could from the door. The shriek filled her mind, her heart with terror.

BANG. BANG. BANG.

A heavy series of knocks pounded on the door. Daphne clutched her ears, clamping her eyes shut to block out the scream and the piercing light. The banging intensified. 

BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG.

All Daphne could do was scream.

“Leave me alone!” She sobbed.

“Daphne?” came a voice from far away.

 

And just like that, it all stopped.

Daphne opened her eyes. She sat curled up on the stall floor. The light had gone, the screams had stopped, and she could see the red of Velma’s shoes under the stall door.

“Are you ok?” She heard Velma ask as she knocked lightly on the door.

Scrambling to get up, Daphne unlocked the door, coming face to face with a confused Velma.

“D…Didn’t you hear the screaming? See the ghost?” Daphne stammered, darting looks around the once again empty bathroom.

“Daphne, you were the only one in here. We all heard you scream. No one else”


	3. Reconciliation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With no-one to believe him, Shaggy makes his way home, only to be sidetracked into an alley

The rain poured heavily outside the bar.

‘Great’ Shaggy thought, ‘as if this day couldn’t get any worse’

He stomped into a puddle, sending splashes all over the pavement. Scooby narrowly avoided the splash, hesitating before continuing along the street.

 

“Ru ok Raggy?” he asked.

“Yeah, just so bummed by the rest of the gang. I can’t believe they’d just… you know, push me aside like that. They didn’t even listen to the whole thing!” Shaggy grunted.

Scooby gave a questioning head tilt. Shaggy gave him a look then sighed.

“They didn’t even ask why I was so scared of her. Like, if they’d asked that, maybe they’d take it more seriously”

They were approaching an alleyway. The rain had gotten even heavier, pounding down onto the pavement. However, it didn’t mask the crash from around the corner. 

The two froze in place as footsteps rapidly approached the road they were on. Scooby began to growl. Shaggy began to tremble. He was about to call out to see who was there, when someone shot out from the alleyway, nearly sliding into the road due to the slippery pavement. The figure turned to face them. It was a person wearing a long waterproof coat complete with a large hood. A scarf was pulled up over their face to cover it. After a moment’s hesitation, the figure turned on their heel and began to run as fast as they could away from them.

“Like, are you ok?!” Shaggy called after them. No response.

“Guess we should check out what happened” Shaggy sighed, “Right Scoob?” 

Scooby nodded. Both of them shakily turned the corner to the alley way. No one was there. All that was there were an old dumpster and an ancient looking soft drinks dispenser. Shaggy approached the machine. It had long since been abandoned, the lights within it all switched off or broken. Any drink still left in there must be well past their sell-by date. He looked around the alleyway again. No sign of a struggle. No other people. Was that person mugged and the mugger got away? Or was that the mugger and the victim was… Shaggy gulped. There was only one place where they could be. Grunting slightly, he lifted the lid of the dumpster. Scooby reached in to grab the contents. 

“Like, an empty plastic bag from Parties4U? And a glass vial?” Shaggy mused, holding up the two objects, “we should probably get these to Velma. She’d know what to do with these”

“Uhh Raggy?” Scooby whimpered, tugging at his shirt. 

Shaggy turned to the alley entrance, only to freeze in shock. The silhouetted figure of a woman in a long flowing cloak was approaching them. The rain and wind whipped at her, masking the sound of her footsteps. Her hand was reaching out in front of her, reaching for Shaggy.

“N…no! Leave me alone!” Shaggy spluttered, staggering behind the dumpster. Scooby took a stand, raising his hackles and growling.

The figure began to approach faster. The sound of its high-heels clacking on the floor echoed around the alley. High-heels? Scooby sat back, squinting at the figure. He could see the noise came from the figure’s designer purple shoes, and as he stared he noticed the long ginger hair from under the hood. He relaxed completely.

“Shaggy?” It called, stepping closer to them. 

“D…Daphne! It’s you!” Shaggy breathed a sigh of relief, stepping out from behind the dumpster to embrace her in a hug, “Sorry, with that long coat and hood I thought you were… well…” he stopped, remembering how they reacted in the bar.

“You mean the ghost woman you saw yesterday?” Daphne grimaced, pulling the coat tighter around her.

“Yeah… again sorry about that. I know it sounded stupid… I don’t blame you if you don’t…”

“I believe you Shaggy” Daphne interrupted. 

“Wha… You do?” He stammered.

She nodded grimly. 

“In the bathroom just now… I saw… a spirit” she whispered.

“The ghost woman?” Shaggy breathed.

“Yes. Well, not your ghost woman. A ghost woman that I hadn’t seen since my childhood. She was wearing a bloodstained wedding dress”

“But mine was wearing black robes. And that was a ghost woman from my childhood.” 

“Which means,” Daphne murmured, “there’s more than one creature here. Somehow, these creatures are from our childhood, but are now appearing as real things in our adult lives.”

“How do we face something we’re terrified of?” Shaggy gulped.

“Simple” Daphne pulled an umbrella out of her bag and expanded it, holding it over Shaggy and Scooby.

“We get the rest of the gang to help”

*

“Wait, now you’re saying that you’ve seen a ghost too?” Fred asked in confusion.

The gang had met at Daphne’s house to escape the rain. It was lucky that her parents had bought her this house so that the gang could use it as their Headquarters and all stay together. It seemed the best option, especially considering the high risk nature of their line of work. Once Shaggy, Daphne and Scooby had dried off, Daphne had called Velma and Fred to meet them back at the house. Now they were all together, it was time for them to begin solving this mystery.

“I did, and now I believe that Shaggy actually did see something supernatural. Or at least something out of the ordinary” Daphne was pacing back and forth in the living room. 

“But even if you both had seen something these two times, how would they know where you would be? And didn’t you say that they were both something you both used to fear as children?” Velma questioned.

“Used to?” Shaggy chuckled, “I’m still terrified of her!”

Shaggy was reclining on one of the sofas, Scooby lying on the floor beside him. Velma and Fred were on the other sofa, Velma typing away on her laptop, compiling notes about what they knew so far.

“I shouldn’t be afraid of this ghost” Daphne admitted, “It was my friends Halloween costume when we were kids one year. Her sister was a Special Effects Makeup designer so she  
got her to help. It was so realistic that it gave me nightmares for a whole year. I guess that fear was so bad it buried itself deep in my subconscious, because that experience definitely was a terrifying one”

“I’ve done a search on Shaggy’s ghost woman, and nothing out of the ordinary has come up. Which raises another question; if these were fears from your childhood, then why are they surfacing now?” Velma hummed.

“Right,” agreed Fred, “even if it is some guy in a costume, how would they know what your greatest fears were?” 

“Like, I wouldn’t have told anyone this. It’s way too personal” Shaggy waved his hand to dismiss the thought

“I may have written a page in my journal from when I was a child, but that would be in my parent’s attic” Daphne mused. 

“Well, if we have no leads other than this vial and bag that Shaggy found, that’s where we have to start” Fred stood up, “Daphne, you and I will go and talk to the Gloomy Grunge Girl tomorrow. Even if she’s not behind it, we can find out some details of how she made her costume and how she carried out her crimes. Shaggy, you and Scoob will go to Parties4U to find out what this bag was for”

“I’ll run some tests on this vial to see what this vial used to contain. Maybe that will let us know something about where these came from” Velma smiled, also standing.

“Awesome! Don’t worry you guys” Fred reassured, “we’ll find out what these things are, and when we’ll do, we’ll put a stop to them”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I'll be away for a few days, but when I come back there'll be a new chapter. Thanks for staying with this story, and I'm looking forward to continuing it


	4. The Hunt Begins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, sorry for the long wait for the next chapter. These next few chapters take place at different times during the same day, just to clear up any possible confusion in the timeline

“First booth on the left. You have 15 minutes”

The prison guard ushered Fred and Daphne through the hall, indicating towards the glass interrogation booth by the far wall. As they approached the booth, they caught sight of the smirking figure behind it.

“So sad she threw her life away so early on” Daphne sighed.

Fred nodded grimly.

They sat down in front of the 17 year old. She was pale with long greasy black hair, dark circles around her eyes. She reclined back in her chair as she observed them.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Mystery Inc.” she grinned.

“Samantha Parker” Fred nodded, “A.k.a the Gloomy Grunge Girl”

“Guilty as charged” she affirmed, “literally”

She put her arms behind her head and her feet up on the table.

“What brings you to my humble abode?” she asked casually.

“We need to ask you some questions about your Grunge Girl routine” Fred cleared his throat.

Samantha pursed her lips for a moment, considering, and then shrugged.

“Eh go ahead. I’ve already confessed and I’m stuck here for two more years so it’s no biggie”

Fred and Daphne exchanged looks.

“Did you… how did you make your costume? That material”

Samantha let out a laugh.

“Ahh yes that wonderful costume; marvellous outfit. It was made of something similar to Sharkstooth Gauze. When lit in a certain way, it vanishes completely. However, this material caused whatever it covered to turn invisible with it”

“That’s right” Daphne nodded, “you would hack into the electronics of the buildings and turn the lights on and off when you needed to”

“When lit from the right angle, the lights would deem me invisible, allowing me to disappear and reappear at will” she laughed, “It was just a matter of finding places that had lights set up in the right way”

She leant forwards.

“You know. Between you and me, the best places to steal from were jewellery shops. They always love to set up weird lighting patterns so they can show rich people just how shiny they are”

“That’s… nice to know but not what we came for” Fred cleared his throat again, “where did you get it? Did you make it?”

“Ha! You think I had the time or money to make something that complex? I’m a 17 year old student who still lived with her parents” Samantha giggled.

“So how did you get it?” Daphne asked.

Samantha stopped giggling and stared off into space.

“You know, I don’t actually know” she mused after 10 seconds of deep thought, “I came home from school one day to see a package on the doorstep addressed to me. The material was inside when I opened it, along with a note”

“What did the note say?” Daphne asked in a hushed whisper.

“It said “Dear Samantha, I’ve noticed how pained and tired you look. I know how you feel. You’re not alone. I think you’d benefit greatly from this”. I still have no idea who it was   
though; the note wasn’t signed at all. It couldn’t have been one of my friends.”

“Why not?” Daphne tilted her head.

Samantha gave her a hard stare.

“Hard for friends to do things for you if you don’t have any. They’d all be too dumb to make anything like that anyway.”

“Now I understand why you didn’t have any friends” Daphne muttered under her breath.

“Well it’s true” Samantha hissed, “I was the only one in my school to actually like and take an interest in theatre at school. That’s why I knew the material could do the things it   
could; our school had a sharkstooth gauze curtain for a long time, before the stupid school sold it”

She went silent and began to sulk to herself.

“They saw you?” Fred questioned, with a side glance at Daphne.

Samantha looked at him with her cold eyes.

“I worked at a coffee shop before I became the Grunge Girl, so maybe they saw me then? I don’t know. All I know is that they knew my name and where I lived. Kinda creepy when you think about it. Like, that’s gotta be a bigger crime than mine right?”

“Theft of multiple jewellery shops? No, yours is much worse” Fred sighed, “Do you still have the material?”

“Nah the police got that” Samantha pursed her lips again, “the notes still at mine though. Maybe you could use that?”

“We can try. Thank you for your time. Thank you for telling us all you can” 

They both stood to leave, beginning to walk away.

“Wait!” Samantha called. They turned to face her again.

“I had a blog where I wrote about how I felt about things. I used to rant on it quite a lot. Maybe that’s where the notewriter found out about me. I wrote a lot of personal info there, that could be the key

 

*

 

“Well now what do we do? Head back to Velma?” Fred asked when they got back outside.

The afternoon was cold, and a heavy wind blew through the streets. Daphne shivered and pulled her fur-lined coat closer towards her.

“Actually Fred, that last thing Samantha said got me thinking. About the blog post? What if the people who are trying to scare us got that information from us” she looked at him over the top of the Mystery Machine. He looked back at her.

“What are you suggesting?” 

“If you don’t mind, could you drive me to my parents’ house?”

 

*

 

“Looks like no-one’s home” Fred noted as they got out of the car.

The huge dark chateau loomed up in front of them, all windows dark and uninviting. They had been driving for about an hour and a half, and in these winter months that meant the light had died almost too quickly. It had gotten much colder as well.

“It must be the Shuttlecocktail party tonight” Daphne nodded. Seeing Fred’s look she elaborated, “Badminton followed by cocktails. They have such weird humour don’t even get me started”

The two began to climb the stone steps up to the large mahogany double doors. Daphne took her key out and unlocked the door. The cold entryway was almost pitch black, the pale light from outside giving them only a sliver of light to see by. As quick as she could, Daphne flicked the light switch, illuminating the crystal chandelier above them. Warm light filled the entryway, throwing light up the walls, revealing many accoutrements that only an affluent family would own; oil paintings of the family, expensive looking art, trophies and various oddities.

“You’re family sure have an impressive collection” remarked an astounded Fred, admiring a particularly expensive looking vase.

“Yeah, they like to pick stuff up whenever they go on holiday. They got that back from Japan when they went to climb Mt Fuji” Daphne responded, hanging her coat on a hook. 

“Hey whose this little thing?” he snickered, pointing at a painting of a ginger child.

“Shut up Fred” she sighed, blushing and smiling. She made her way over to the huge staircase.

“Come on, it’ll be in the attic”

As they ascended, they passed a first floor window. Looking out to the spacious grounds, Fred could see that it had begun to rain again. Typical Outer Coolsville; always a winter storm whenever you didn’t need it. A flash of lightning illuminated the grounds. And the man who stood in them. Fred did a double take. He couldn’t see anything now, but he was sure that the silhouetted figure of a tall adult man was standing out in the rain. 

“Daphne, I think there’s someone in the garden” he warned.

“What?!” she stared out the window, eyes scanning the darkness.

“I don’t know if he’s still there or who he was” 

“It must just be the gardener finishing for today. I’ll ask my parents later if he was working today” she responded in a quavering voice.

“And what if he wasn’t?” Fred asked.

“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you from them” she regained her confidence and flicked his chin, hastily ascending the stairs further.

With a final glance outside, Fred followed her up. 

At the top floor, Daphne led them to a trapdoor in the ceiling. Fred pulled the cord on the door, allowing it to fall open, the ladder following suit. They both entered the dark attic.

“Jeez it’s dark in here” Fred coughed, as undisturbed dust from years of old boxes arose due to their sudden appearance.

“The bulb must have gone in the light, it won’t turn on” Daphne moaned, flicking the switch.

“Well, good thing it’s the 21st century” Fred joked, taking out his phone and turning on the torch. Daphne did the same.

Splitting up, they both searched the attic for any old boxes from Daphne’s childhood. Outside in the van, Daphne had stated that she remembered writing about her childhood in a series of journals. She wanted to confirm any suspicions she had of that information being there. But first they had to find it. Daphne took the left hand side, poking about between boxes of old clothes and family heirlooms that apparently weren’t glamourous enough to be showcased downstairs. Eventually, her light shine upon the box she was searching for.

‘Daphne, childhood’ it read

With a triumphant look, she went to open the flaps. There was no dust on top of it, even though it was on top of other boxes. Odd.

“Hey Fred I found it” she called. She got a grunt as a response. He was stuck behind a bunch of boxes.

Opening the flaps, she noticed that her parents had packed it with what looked like white gauze. ‘Must be to protect the books’, she thought. Holding her phone in one hand, she reached down to move the gauze. Upon retracting her hand, it stuck to it and moved back with her.

“What…?” she gasped.

Shaking her hand did little to remove it. She only realised what it was when it was too late. They had already begun to emerge.

Spiders.

Hundreds of them.

Hundreds of little black spiders. Emerging from all over the box, crawling all over what she now realised was spider web. Frozen in absolute horror, she could only sit as she watched them scuttle over the web, barely noticing them crawling up the strand of web connected to her hand.

“JESUS CHRIST!” Fred yelled, stumbling over boxes to get to her.

The noise shook her out of her trance. With an ear shattering screech she flung herself backwards, shaking her arms as she did so. She wanted to get as far away from the box as possible. Get away from those horrible things. She took another step back. And another. 

Her next step didn’t connect with the floor.

Fred yelled her name. He seemed so far away. She saw the attic entrance rush past her head, the ladder shooting away from her as well. 

Then it all went dark when she hit the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading this chapter. I'm thinking of possibly writing a shorter story about the Gloomy Grunge Girl mystery just to give her some more context but that would only be a small side project. If that would be something you'd possibly like to see in the future, let me know! :)


	5. Fear Runs Deep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shaggy and Scooby are tasked with investigating the plastic bag they picked up from the dumpster.

“So like, this is it right?”

Shaggy and Scooby stood outside of the local Parties4U store. He held the empty plastic bag in his hand, and was now looking at the label to make sure what he was asking. All that was on it was the logo for the shop and a serial number. On further scrutiny, it must have been part of a pack, because there was no other item information. With a deep breath, he pushed open the door. The bell above the door gave a little tinkle. They strode up to the counter. The man behind the counter eyed them lazily at first, but frowned  
slightly at the sight of Scooby.

“Woah now that’s a dog” he chuckled, before pausing to think, “Do we even allow that?”

“Hey” Shaggy greeted, stepping to the counter, “We need to find out something”

“Well, let’s see if I can help. What can I do for you?” the man leant forwards.

Shaggy placed the bag onto the counter. The guy looked down at it. 

“Uhh I think that’s something from our old stock. I wasn’t really here during the last few months, I was on holiday. Maybe Kate can help you guys out”

He leant back and called to the back.

“KATE! THERE’S SOME GUYS HERE WHO NEED YOUR HELP”

A few seconds passed and a door to the storeroom opened, and a young woman stepped out. 

“Hey Zeke what’s up?” she asked, a little out of breath while tying her brown hair back into a ponytail.

“I need a product to be identified; do you know what it could be?” Zeke asked her.

Kate picked up the packet and scanned it with her eyes. 

“Uh huh I think this is one that we got in a few months ago. I’ll have a look in the back”

She gave them a look, and hey eyes widened.

“Aren’t you Mystery Incorporated ?” she gasped.

“Like, yeah! You know about us?” Shaggy smiled.

“Yeah I do! Hey, is Daphne still with you guys?” 

“Yeah she’s a vital part of the team. Do you know her?”

“Yeah!” Kate smiled broadly, “she was my best friend growing up and I was so sad when I moved away from her! I had no idea you guys were still here!”

“Like hey, I don’t think Daphne knew you were here either, she never mentioned you worked here” Shaggy gave an apologetic laugh,

“Hey it’s no worries, I never contacted her to say I was still here” she gave a flap of her hand.

“Wait you guys are *The* Mystery Inc.?” Zeke perked up, “should we tell them about the things we saw?”

“Like, what things?” Shaggy asked tentatively.

“Well, we’ve both seen… terrible things” Zeke began to tremble slightly.

Kate nodded grimly.

“Rot did you see?” Scooby asked.

“Well, I saw… you know that creepy story about Slenderman? I saw him. I’d just come out of the back room cause I was closing up with Kate, and he was just… standing there…  
outside” he shivered, “Man that story always freaked me out. I’ve never been more afraid of anything since”

“That’s what… you’re most afraid of?” Shaggy whimpered.

“Yeah, and Kate ran into something too, tell them”

Kate rubbed her shoulders.

“When I was younger I was terrified of aliens, and that I would be abducted. Well, last night I was taking the bins out and… I saw an alien”

“An alien?!” the two shrieked. 

She nodded.

“I wouldn’t have believed Zeke if I hadn’t seen that alien with my own eyes. It was tall and grey with black eyes and long fingers. It stared at me before a bright light glowed behind it. I ran before it could do anything” with a shudder she sat down on a chair.

“I hadn’t been scared like that since my childhood” she sighed. 

“Wait,” Shaggy said slowly, “You were scared of aliens as a child?”

Kate gave him a confused look.

“Well, yeah, I said I was. They’re probably my greatest fear”

Shaggy and Scooby exchanged a look, and made a mental note to tell Velma this information.

“Anyway, I’ll find out what this is and get back to you as soon as possible” she smiled at them.

“Yeah,” Shaggy responded, focusing on his job as a Mystery Solver, “so Zeke, were you, like, scared of Slenderman as a child?” 

“Well, yeah I mean that’s when I read the Creepypasta for the first time. I never really understood it at first though…”

 

*

 

Scooby had lost interest. Shaggy had been talking to the two shop clerks, finding out that the two had discussed their childhood fears once previously between them. The apparitions of their fears appeared soon after. But that wasn’t interesting to Scooby. He had picked up the scent of an especially friendly dog that he’d met the other day. Tail wagging, he began to sniff out his friend. His nose told him that he was close. But that was odd. He wasn’t outside. Scooby moved between the shelves, sniffing intently, following the trail through the shop. The smell led him to a door in the back of the shop away from the desk. 

The smell was stronger here. With a push, the door opened. Scooby gulped. A dark staircase was revealed to him, lit only by several dingy lights. He did not want to go down there. But what if his friend was in trouble? Why else would he be down here? It was his duty to help people and friends.

He slowly made his way down the steps. The smell grew stronger the further down he got. The staircase emerged into a storage basement. As Scooby explored round, he noticed that there were many boxes and shelving racks. The smell seemed to come from round the corner.

Scooby froze.

There was another smell there. An unfamiliar scent. Someone… bad. He could smell sweat. And the fear.

Scooby stepped towards the corner in front of him. He could now hear someone breathing, and small barks from his friend. 

Now breathing quickly, he edged round the corner.

There was a man. He was tall, and wore ragged clothes coloured crimson. They looked like tribal clothes; a red cloth skirt and leather straps on his torso. He wore sack-cloth shoes and gloves, and his head was covered with some form of sack. A mask was positioned over his face. He was hunched over… 

Scooby recoiled in shock as he saw his friend locked in a steel cage. He was shivering with fear, but trying to remain confident, growling at the man’s feet. The man himself held a large bone staff in his hand. Scooby began to move backwards, eyes fixed on his back.

CRASH

A mop had fallen over as Scooby bumped into it. He froze as the man turned slowly. 

The mask resembled a wooden tribal mask carved with a horrific grimace. The face was painted with crimson paint (or what he hoped was paint), but those eyes seemed to bore into his skull. The man let out a gurgling growl as he raised the staff.  
Scooby yelped and ran as fast as he could. He bound round the corner, dashing for the staircase back up. He was nearly at the bottom step when the man burst through a shelf, screaming at him. With a yelp Scooby threw himself down the nearest corner. A dead end. It was just long enough for him to take a few steps down the short corridor. The darkness covered his tracks. But for how long? He could hear the footsteps traipsing around the basement room. Scooby slowly moved backwards, as far back as he could.

“YEOWCH!” he cried out.

He’d backed into the wall, and had touched an ice cold water pipe on the wall. 

That was it. He heard slow footsteps approaching the corner. Each step echoed louder and louder in the dark corridors. All Scooby could do was curl up in the corner. The footsteps got closer as he let out a whimper.

 

“Scoob?” 

Scooby opened an eye to see Shaggy standing in the corridor entrance.

“Like, what are you doing?”

“Raggy!” Scooby yelped again, “Man in a mask!”

“What? What man?”

“Rog!” Scooby cried out, running to his friend’s leg, tugging at his trousers to try and get him to move. Shaggy followed him with a puzzled look. Scooby led him round the far corner.

Shaggy gasped as he saw the dog in the cage. The dog let out a whimpering bark as Shaggy fumbled with the lock. Once the door was open, he took out the dog and looked him over. 

"No injuries, he's just a bit shaken up. But this is really bad"

He stood up and patted Scooby, who was sniffing his friend, trying to calm him down

“We have to call someone. This just got much worse”


	6. Misdirection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Velma is working late in the lab on that mysterious vial they recovered. But is she alone here?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the lack of chapter updates! I've been on holiday and haven't been able to write more except this chapter :) expect more soon once I've finished my holiday

It was around 10PM. How had it gotten so late without her noticing? Velma took her glasses off and rubbed her eyes. Nothing had come up initially from the vial Shaggy had recovered, but she was not giving up. There must be something that this could tell her. It wouldn’t have just been in the dumpster coincidentally right? She still had a small sample of residue that was left in the bottom of the vial, so it was time for a final test. She’d found out most of the chemical composition, and needed to confirm the final structure to determine its chemical properties.

She took out the current sample she was working on and reached down for the last sample.

HONK

The noise was so loud in the silent lab, causing Velma to jump backwards, her heart pounding. Breathing rapidly she stared down at the source of the noise.

In place of the glass vial was a novelty squeak-horn

Like one of those a clown would… use…

Sweat began to form across her brow. Her glasses slipped slightly on her nose. Breathing heavily, she pushed them back up and gulped. No… it couldn’t be. Fear wasn’t something that had control over her. The lab was unnaturally dark; the only lights on now were by the doorway.

The only doorway out of the lab.

Her phone was on the desk. A few weeks ago, she had developed an app that allowed each of the members of Mystery Inc. to send an instant message to all the other members should they get into trouble. It was just a precaution if a particularly dangerous mystery came about. Looked like now would be a great time to put it to use. If she could just get to it, she could send a notification to the others. Keeping an eye on the door, she quickly edged her way around. Once the phone was in reach, she grabbed it and opened the app. She was just about to hit the button.

 

“You know it’s too late for that don’t you?” 

 

The voice was hollow. Empty. The phone screen threw up just enough light to identify its owner. It was a tall man dressed in an old red and blue jester’s outfit, complete with poofy shoulders and hips, and curled shoes that jingled. His face was covered with a porcelain renaissance mask that was pulled into horrific portrayal of a smile. It sneered at her with empty eye, barely an arm’s length away from her. He began to slowly creep towards her, a sickening laugh emanating from behind his mask.

Velma tried to scream but her voice caught in her throat. The only thing she could do was turn and run. She ran around the desk, aiming directly for the door. Upon hearing a crash from behind her, she glanced back only to see the clown clambering over the desk, still staring and laughing at her. It only spurred her on to move faster. Bursting out of the basement, she stumbled through the house. She could hear the heavy footsteps stomping behind her, clearly running towards her. She pulled open the front door, slamming it behind her, and ran across the road. Now on the other pavement, she turned to look back at the house, only to see the silhouette of the clown waving at her from the window. She could swear she could still hear him laughing. 

She made her way confidently to the neighbour across the road’s door. Knocking on it heavily, she turned back to the house. He wasn’t there anymore.

“Hello..?” a tired woman opened the door, rubbing the sleep out of her blue eyes. She was about as old as them, with long blonde hair and pale skin.

“Eloise thank goodness you’re awake” Velma breathed.

Eloise had lived across from them for some time now so she was used to situations like these. 

“What’ll it be today? Celebratory pizza? Scooby Snack resupply?” Eloise mumbled, still tired.

“No, none of that. I need to call...” Velma stopped as her phone screen lit up, Fred’s name appearing on the caller ID

“Hello?” she answered.

“Velma, come to the hospital now. It’s about Daphne”

 

*

 

“Is she ok?” Shaggy asked worriedly?

The gang were gathered around Daphne’s hospital bed. After she’d fallen out of the attic, Fred had tried his best to tend her wounds while the ambulance came. She’d been unconscious since the fall. Once Fred had called Velma, he’d gotten a call from Shaggy to say that there had been another incident. Now that they were all together, it was time to discuss facts.

“She’ll be ok; the doctors said that she’s just knocked out. There’s no spinal injuries or head injuries luckily. But she has to stay here overnight” Fred patted Daphne’s hand.

“Daphne actually found something very important. Her fall wasn’t for nothing. When she comes too I need to ask her some questions. But for now we can discuss what you two found out,” Velma flipped open the laptop, “So you said that at the party shop, the clerks told you that they’d both seen things they were afraid of as well” she hummed, typing into her computer.

“That’s right, both that dude Zeke and Daphne’s friend Kate” 

“Daphne’s friend?” Fred asked.

“Yeah, like, she was working at the party shop. She said she’d seen an alien”

“Hmm. So it seems like this person isn’t just targeting us, it’s targeting others as well”

“Well, Scooby’s guy was different from ours. He saw some freaky dude in a mask!”

“That tells us one thing; there’s multiple people behind this; both Shaggy and Daphne’s ghosts were female, and this new ‘thing’ is a male” Fred grimaced.

“My question is, what was he?” Shaggy asked.

“Good question. I’ve done some research and found this,” Velma turned her laptop to face them. The laptop showed a hand drawn picture of a masked tribal priest, and a few photographs of skeletal remains and artefacts.

“Around 30 years ago there was an excavation on the outskirts of town. It supposedly uncovered a burial site for an unknown tribe. They recovered many strange artefacts including ritual drums, tribal attire and organic remains”

“Remains?” The gang gasped.

“What kind of remains?” Shaggy whimpered.

“Well, there were a few skeletons that were identified as human, one wearing the wooden mask that Scooby described. There were also rumours that written passages talked about kidnapping dogs for themselves”

Scooby curled up on the floor, whimpering. Shaggy stroked his head.

“So is this guy some ghost of this tribal priest guy that kidnaps dogs? That’s awful!” he frowned.

“What else do we know about this” Fred asked Velma. She shook her head in exasperation

“A few years later, the remains and excavation site vanished from existence, and there’s almost no information online about it either. All I can find is this!”

She clicked a link on the picture. The page loaded in. All that was on the screen was an oil painting of a young woman wearing an expensive looking dress. She was smiling softly in the picture, hands placed neatly on her lap.

“Every link and picture related to the excavation just leads to this picture. There’s no information or anything”

“Maybe she’s important to this mystery” Fred slumped in the chair he was sitting in, “this mystery is much bigger than we thought it was going to be. There have been incidents with both animals and people. This is a serious danger to people and pets now. It’s up to us to solve this mystery”

“What about you? Did you find out anything from the vial?” Shaggy asked.

“The vial was stolen from the lab after the clown showed up” Velma grumbled under her breath.

“Clown, what clown?” Fred demanded sternly.

Velma blushed. She shifted in her seat as the gang stared at her.

“I… encountered something as well” she sighed. Reluctantly, she told them the story of what happened in the lab. The rest of the group listened with intent. Once she’d finished talking, Fred cleared his throat.

“Well, there are two things we can get from this. One, this clown was only after the vial. Someone doesn’t want us to know what was inside that tube. Second, this woman in the picture, she must have a connection to this tribe. We have to find out who she was.”

He stood up.

“You guys go back with Eloise, and get some rest. Tomorrow morning we can begin researching this woman”

“What about you?” Shaggy asked.

“I’ll stay here with Daphne. I want to be here when she wakes up. Keep your chins up guys. If what we think is true, then we can solve this mystery”


	7. Recovery is a terrifying process

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fred stays with Daphne in the hospital to keep her company. But is he alone?

It was close to 10PM when Daphne finally awoke. Hazily, she glanced around the room, noticing Fred sitting in the chair beside her, quietly reading a book. 

“Fred?” She mumbled.

He jumped at the sound, closing the book.

“Daph! You’re awake!” He smiled broadly at her, taking her hand in his.

“What happened?” Daphne groaned, rolling over slightly so she could face him.

“Well, your encounter with the spiders caused you to fall out of the attic. The doctors said that luckily you didn’t have any brain or spinal damage. We brought you here as quickly as possible, and you’ve been asleep ever since”

“Did the others come here? How are they?”

“Velma encountered a clown in the basement, and she’s sure that he stole the vial she was studying. This leads her to believe that someone is just messing with us” Fred sighed.

“Is she OK?” Daphne asked worriedly.

“Yeah, yeah she is, don’t worry. It just seems now that there is a man and a woman behind this”

“Unless it really is apparitions of our fears come to haunt us” she grumbled.

“Well it’s not just us; apparently there have been a number of civilians who have also witnessed something, and there seems to also be the spirit of an ancient tribe who is targeting dogs to kidnap. It’s not just us that they’re going for now”

The two sat in silence in the ward, contemplating what they had found.

“What about the journals we found? Did anything come up from that?” Daphne asked.

Fred looked at her.

“Well, all your journals were there… except one. There was the years before and after it, but not that middle one” he shook his head.

“Oh… anything else?” 

“There was this one, it has a page missing in the middle” Fred gave her a pink leatherbound journal.

She flipped open the book. The pages were still a crisp white, and covered with the scribbled handwriting of a young child. Daphne turned the pages one by one, until she landed on a set of pages that had been crumpled recently. She scanned the pages with writing on them. A page had been ripped out of the book, meaning a day had been removed from the book.

“Oh I remember these days” she smiled, “This passage,” she pointed at the paragraph before the ripped page, “was when I was going to go to the zoo with my family”

She flipped ahead until the page after the ripped page.

“And this one was when I had gotten back, and I was writing about,” she took a breath, “how scared I was of the insect house” she closed her eyes and the book.

“So you wrote about your fear in that page?” Fred exclaimed.

“I guess so, so… you think this was stolen?” She gasped, opening her eyes wide.

“That’s right, I think that someone broke in and took these things from you so that they could learn what scares you most” 

“Maybe I wrote down something specific that scared me” she looked down in shame, “I should have been more careful”

“Don’t be silly, there was absolutely no way you could have known” Fred leant over and kissed the top of her head.

He then stood up and stretched.

“Once you get out of here tomorrow, we can find out who did this, and we can stop them. But right now, it’s probably best for us to get some sleep”

 

*

 

Fred awoke with a start at about 3AM. It was very nice for the nurses to let Fred stay with Daphne in the ward thanks to their reputation. He groaned and stretched; sitting in the chair all night was not comfortable at all. But he smiled when he saw Daphne sleeping peacefully in bed. He rubbed his neck and flinched when he felt a small lump that caused pain to shoot through his neck when he touched it.

“Damn insects. Always there when you don’t want them”

THUD

Fred’s eyes snapped towards the door. The thud sounded like someone dropped something in the hall.

CRASH

Now there was a clatter from outside too. Daphne stirred slightly but didn’t wake. Fred moved towards the door. Maybe someone was up in the other wards? I mean, they were in a private room so other people could be up elsewhere. But maybe someone was hurt? Fred gulped. Maybe the culprits were here and terrorising patients. He had to go and check.

He opened the door to the corridor. The cold white lights of the hospital corridors shone off the blank white walls. Looking down the corridor, he saw that at one corner, a small table had been knocked over, and nearby it was a pile of scattered silverware. No-one was around, so maybe someone had gone to find something to clean it up with. Fred walked over to it and began to pick stuff up, placing the table back onto its feet. The corridor was eerily calm. The quiet hum of the lights buzzed overhead as he picked up the pieces of  
cutlery.

But it didn’t mask the sound of footsteps.

He heard someone stepping slowly round the corner. Glancing up for a second he saw the form of a nurse carrying a tray round the corner. 

“Oh hey sorry I was just trying to clean up. Do you need help?” he offered with a smile.

The nurse didn’t respond. She just kept walking forwards slowly. Fred frowned.

“Hello?” he called.

The nurse kept moving. There was something up with this nurse. Her steps were heavy and slow, as if she wasn’t sure of how she walked. He looked her up and down. And all the blood drained from his face.

Her white nurse’s uniform was covered with blood splatters. Her white hat was askew, covered in blood as well. At the sound of his voice, she stopped, swaying slightly on the spot. 

She turned slowly.

She had no face.

Well, the top half of her face was covered with blood-soaked bandages, and the bottom of her face was too mangled to identify – it was covered with blood and stitches. 

Somehow, she saw him through the bandages. 

She screamed a guttural yell, dropping her tray to the floor.

Fred barely had time to scream as she began to bolt towards him, running down the corridor at top speed. She ran as if all her limbs were in agony; her arms were twisted into horrific contortions as she slumped forwards towards him. As he glanced back quickly at her, he saw that attached to her fingers were a variety of long, sharp needles. He wanted to vomit.

He ran round the corridor, scrambling to get away as fast as he could. Despite her ungainly posture, she seemed to be catching up on him easily. He could practically feel her rancid breath on the back of his neck. Heart beating fast, he took one last glance behind her.

She was right behind him. Reaching out for him, fingers and needles outstretched.

Fred screamed again, and let out an extra burst of speed. He planned on bashing through the closed office door at the end of the hall, and braced himself.

Just as he got there, the door opened.

He slammed into the man who opened it, knocking him down. With haste, Fred jumped back up and threw the door shut, leaning against it.

The man stood up too, using his desk for support.

“Calm down sir,” he said, “are you OK?”

 

*

 

“I’m telling you there was something out there!” Fred exclaimed.

He was now sitting on a chair in the man’s office, holding a cup of tea that a nurse (thankfully a regular nurse) had gotten him. 

“We’ve checked outside multiple times and could not find anything close to what you were describing. What happened again?” the man asked.

He was a senior doctor, with short wavy brown hair and glasses. He looked down at Fred with a concerned look.

“It was a nurse with a gross blood covered face and needles on her fingers. She was after me and she could be after someone else now!”

“Sir, please calm down” the doctor advised, placing a hand on Fred’s shoulder.

“Doctor Warren?” A nurse opened the office door to speak to him, “the footage has been emailed to you”

“Thank you Sara” Dr Warren turned the computer screen on his desk to face Fred.

“This is the CCTV footage from a few hours ago. It should show you what happened” 

He clicked the video link that was sent to his email. A video window opened up showing a clip from last night. It showed Fred leaving Daphne’s room and walking down the corridor. It showed him leaning down over… nothing. The table had not been knocked over; the platter was still on top of it. It then showed him looking up, and beginning to run away from absolutely nothing. He bounded down the corridor, looking back over his shoulder at something that didn’t seem to exist. The footage ended with him slamming into the office. 

“But… that’s not what… it was there…” Fred stuttered, completely in shock.

“As you can see sir, there was nothing there. Now I insist that you sleep here tonight. Maybe you’re suffering from a lack of sleep”

“It’s not a lack of sleep! I swear I saw something!” Fred growled. 

“We both saw the footage, I didn’t see anything. If you saw something, then I can schedule some tests for you if you like?” Dr Warren suggested.

“No… no it’s ok… I’ll just get some sleep…” Fred rubbed his eyes.

“See that you do sir, I’ll see you in the morning”

 

*

 

“What’s the matter Fred? You don’t look good” Velma commented as he and Daphne exited the hospital. 

“I had an experience last night. I need to discuss it with you. I met a doctor who helped me out but it just raised more questions than answers. How did you go with your research?”

“We couldn’t find much on the woman at all. Every link and page we tried just led to a dead end” Velma sighed, showing him another webpage on her computer which just presented the same image of the woman.

“A dead end with that creepy picture of the woman” Shaggy shivered.

“We also had a phone call from Zeke. He was with Kate and she told him to call and tell us about the bag that Shaggy and Scooby found”

“And?” 

“It turns out that the bag contained confetti of some sort. She wasn’t sure whether it was glitter confetti or paper confetti” Velma frowned. 

“Well that doesn’t help at all!” Fred stamped on the ground, “Why can’t it be something useful? “Why can’t we find a lead in this mystery!?” 

“Excuse me, Fred Jones?” came a voice from behind them.

“Dr Warren!” Fred turned to the doctor. The gang all looked at them.

“Here, I’ve prescribed you these pills that should help you sleep. It might prevent another episode”

“Yeah, thanks” Fred grunted, taking the pills.

“Hey,” Dr Warren said, pointing at Velma’s computer screen which was still showing the picture of the woman, “I know her”

“You do?” Velma exclaimed, “Do you anything about her? We’re trying to solve a mystery”

“Yeah, I remember seeing a picture of her somewhere. Tell you what, stop by the Pier Café at 2 when I finish and I think I can help” he smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, sorry it took so long with the update, but I've been a bit busy over these last few weeks. Its great to see that it's gotten so much support and I'm incredibly excited to continue writing :)


	8. Exploration into the past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang find out some history behind their mystery

Fred pulled the Mystery Machine up to the parking space just outside the Pier Café. As they made their way towards the café, they noticed Dr Warren standing outside the door. He had shed his Dr’s attire and was now wearing a brown tweed jacket, hands in his pockets. 

“Hello everyone, hope you had an enjoyable day.” He greeted them, opening the door from them into the shop.

The gang greeted him as well and sat down at a table. He had ordered a cup of tea and was already drinking it.

“So, you said you could tell us something about our mystery?” Fred asked him. 

“Well, I don’t know if it will be able to help much but I can offer this” Dr Warren cleared his throat and produced a newspaper page.

The page was brown with age, and crinkled beyond belief. But it was readable enough to see the picture.

The picture of the woman. 

The gang leant in towards the paper, all craning their necks to see the article. It was the front page of a newspaper seemingly written 80 years ago. The paper consisted of the article, the picture of the   
woman and the headline “Woman Goes Missing After Hiking Discovery”. 

“One of my patients left this behind at the office. I meant to give it back to him, but when I saw this article I somehow couldn’t seem to part with it. I had never heard of such an event, and could not find any other information on it anywhere” Dr Warren began.

“Eventually I found this article, which states this: ‘Local explorer Hector Burrows has experienced a great loss following his discovery last week. The explorer was hiking through the countryside when a section of ground fell away to reveal a chamber that had been concealed under a hill. Upon exploration inside, Burrows stated that there was an array of tribal artefacts and sacrificial tools. However, before other exploration groups could traverse inside, Burrows’ wife Elana fell ill. She complained of terrifying visions of tall shadow figures that had once appeared in her childhood dreams. She claimed they warned her of the cave and what her husband had discovered. Taking her warnings as illness-induced ravings, Henry Burrows decided to explore the cave on his own. Upon his entering the cave, he experienced visions of tribal figures and voices telling him to leave. However, his gravest discovery was that of a portrait of his own wife Elana Burrows in the cave. He rushed home to discover that the caregivers had all been killed and his wife had disappeared. He has since forbidden anyone else from entering the cave, lest the curse return and claim more victims’”. 

After he finished reading, he smoothed out the paper on the table and leant back, taking a sip of his tea. The gang were all staring in stunned silence.

“So this woman was taken by whatever spirit came from the cave?” Daphne gulped.

“That’s what this article seems to suggest. There’s no record of the first exploration or any other records relating to Henry or Elana other than this paper. What I do know is the cave does exist” Dr Warren shrugged.

“That’s right,” Velma snapped her fingers, “the cave and excavation site had been found thirty years ago and all the artefacts had been removed!” 

“So maybe whatever was trapped within the cave has got out again” Fred mused.

Shaggy and Scooby were now trembling so much they were almost collapsing.

“Do you two need some fresh air?” Daphne asked them.

Wordlessly, they nodded their heads.

 

*

 

“Like, can you believe that?” Shaggy shuddered as he and Scooby made their way towards the pier. 

The pier stretched far out over the water, a magnificent wooden structure containing fairground rides, carnival games and various eateries. The beach was far behind them now as they walked down the length of the pier. Scooby looked up into the sky to see the seagulls swirling around and squawking in the sunny sky.

“Evil spirits escaping from caves? A woman who just vanished with all her carers killed? Somethings not right here Scoob”

Shaggy shook his head and leant on the bar at the end of the pier. The sea air whipped at his hair, the salt working its way into his locks. The ocean was always nice at this time of year; at the end of the pier, there was hardly any noise from the beach, so you could just listen to the rolling waves as they froth under the wooden boards. You could see the deep blue-green hue of the waves as they undulated underneath the pier. Occasionally, a bit of seaweed or driftwood would float up, and Shaggy would watch it bob about in the water. He then saw something move under the water. Something pale. A fish? A plastic bag? No, it looked more like a hand. 

What.

“ZOINKS!” Shaggy stared wide eyed into the sea. He could see it. He could see her. The woman.

He could see her robed body floating about her pale white skin. Her dark hair was splayed all around her head. She stared up at him. Right into his eyes. He stared at her as she smiled up at him from under the water. As he stared at her, she mouthed at him. 

‘Help me’

Shaggy yelped, mouth open in horror. 

He watched as she began to wave her hand at him, almost beckoning him. Beckoning him to the deep dark depths of the ocean. 

Shaggy reeled back, his heart beating hard in his chest. Scooby watched in shock as Shaggy stumbled back, pointing and spluttering towards the end of the pier. He was too slow to warn him of where he was going. Shaggy continued to move backwards, right into the path of a scrawny teenager with dark hair. The two collided, sending both of them sprawling onto the floor. Both of them scrabbled around   
on the floor, both trying to get back up onto their feet. The teen that he had run into glared at them. He was a pale teen with dyed black hair which fell over one eye. He was a very gothic teen, complete with a lip piercing and a small amount of eyeliner. He wore a black hoodie over a gothic t-shirt and black jeans. His backpack had fallen off his shoulder, and the laptop he was holding has slipped away from him.

“Watch where you’re going you idiot” he spat at them.

Shaggy also stood up, still shaking. 

“What’s wrong with you?” the teen demanded.

“Sorry, I was just… did you see anything over there?” Shaggy pointed to the end of the pier. The teen looked from the end of the pier to Shaggy’s terrified face.

“Dude, what the hell is wrong with you”

Scooby had sniffed his way over to the laptop. The previous programme that was running was visible on the screen. It showed many lines of code and some windows of CCTV footage. Scooby made a disappointed growl.

“Hey get away from that!” the teen barked at Scooby, scooping up his bag and laptop.

“Hey, that was CCTV footage. Are you hacking into the CCTV?” Shaggy questioned.

“So what if am? You can’t prove anything” the boy grumbled, shoving the laptop into his bag. With a turn on his heel, and an obscene hand gesture to the both of them, he stormed back up the pier.

“Raggy? Rot did you see?” Scooby asked.

“N…nothing,” Shaggy shook his head, “we’ll… head back to the others now” 

Scooby frowned as Shaggy walked briskly past him. With a final cursory glance over the fence at the end of the pier, he saw the deep blue waves rolling in the gentle breeze.

 

*

 

FredJ has joined  
Daphneee has joined  
shaggy has joined  
Velma Dinkley has joined

FredJ: guys we need to decide about what to do next  
Daphneee: agreed x  
shaggy: do we hav 2 rite now  
FredJ: yes. We do have to. Its very important that we solve this as quickly as possible  
shaggy: wat if that story was tru tho. wat if that was some ghost from a cave  
Velma Dinkley: Shaggy, that’s very unlikely. There would be more information on it if that was the case.  
Daphneee: where did that Dr get his article from again? X  
FredJ: he said he got it from a patient. But that was the only article about that excavation  
Daphneee: what about articles about the local history of the town? It might mention the excavation hill x  
FredJ: hey that’s a good idea.  
Velma Dinkley: I’ll begin checking that now. That could be our next lead.   
shaggy: thas probs a bad idea guys. idk that ghost probly doesnt want us snooping  
FredJ: there’s a chance that this guy could hurt someone. We have to put a stop to them.  
Daphneee: stay safe guys. Imma head to sleep now. Talk to you in the morning xx  
Velma Dinkley: I’m going to do some more research. Talk to you later  
FredJ: come on guys, I know we can do this.  
shaggy: like, ok, but this is gonna be scary. dont say I didnt warn u

Daphneee has left the chat  
FredJ has left the chat  
shaggy has left the chat

Velma sat on her bed looking at the now empty chat log. The house was empty aside from her and Scooby who was fast asleep at the end of her bed. Fred and Daphne were both at her parents, and Shaggy was out getting a late-night snack. She rubbed her eyes. They had had a lot of information given to them that day, and they were still so far from solving this mystery. But Daphne had raised a good point; instead of looking up specific events that happened years ago, maybe just looking up the area’s history would help out. Typing into the search engine, ‘Coolsville local history’, up popped a detailed timeline of major events that happened in the surrounding areas. There were a lot of generic events such as concerts, the first major shopping centres built etcetera. But she found one that stuck out to her.

‘Coolsville Hill – cave found’

She clicked the link. The page redirected itself to another page with a few paragraphs of text and a few pictures. Most of them were of the hill itself, some were of a cave entrance, and one of them was a picture of that woman, Elana Burrows. Velma shuddered slightly. There was something off about that picture, something the way she was just staring off into the distance. Ignoring it, she scanned the text for information. It didn’t really tell her anything interesting. Until the final paragraph.

“The cave was first explored by an explorer known as Henry Burrows. After his exploration, his wife Elana Burrows (pictured left) went missing from their townhouse in Lower Coolsville, now a museum dedicated to ancient cultural artefacts. She was never found”

Velma’s heart began to beat faster. This was new information.

“Henry claimed that the cave ‘spoke’ to him, saying that his wife was not the only ‘victim’. Before he died of a heart attack three days later, he gave a list of names that the cave warned should not investigate:”

The website then began to list names of people who were presumably old members of Coolsville when this event occurred. Each name had a link attached to them that provided more information on them. 

She clicked each name, only to find out that each of them had died. Some of them stated that they had experienced a shock that stopped their heart. They died of fright. She scrolled down more names.

Daniel Warf - deceased  
Holly Wallson – deceased  
Mya Turbuck – deceased  
Fred Jones

 

What.

 

Velma froze. No. What? She hesitated before clicking the link. It loaded on the page. Fred’s face appeared in the profile picture. Underneath it showed his status… deceased. She hastily clicked off of the site back to the list. The next name was listed below.

Daphne Blake. Also deceased.  
Shaggy – deceased.  
Scooby Doo – deceased.  
Velma Dinkley.   
She didn’t want to click it. She knew what was going to show up. She clicked the link. Her own face smiled back at her. Deceased. Velma tried to get rid of it. The tab wouldn’t close. Every time she tried to leave the site, it just opened more tabs showing all of her friend’s death profiles. Every time she tried to close them, it brought up more names of dead people. Every so often, tabs would open just depicting Elana’s face. She would appear in every tab she opened, staring directly at her. Her picture replaced all of Mystery Inc’s portraits in their deceased tabs. She replaced all of their profile pictures in the chat log. She was everywhere. The computer was completely out of control, with new windows and tabs opening each second. The chat log was now spamming messages seemingly from Elana Burrows herself, bringing up messages warning them of their actions – “You’re going too far”, “Quit now”, “Leave them be”

Velma covered her ears and closed her eyes.

After what seemed like forever, the compute gave one more beep. The chat log notification message.

Guess Who: ;)

Velma stared at the message. It was a new chat. The icon was blank. But Velma didn’t need one to know who was there.

Velma Dinkley: Why are you messaging me?  
Guess Who: Why Not?  
Velma Dinkley: Where are you?  
Guess Who: ;)  
Velma Dinkley: I’m not here to play games  
Guess Who: Awww But Games Are What I Do Best  
Velma Dinkley: Why do you keep showing up to us?  
Guess Who: I Don’t Appear To Them. I Only Appear To You.   
Velma Dinkley: Why?  
Guess Who: ;)  
Velma Dinkley: Why!?  
Guess Who: Because I Am What You Are Scared Of. I Am What The Cave Knows About You. I Am What You Are To Fear  
Velma Dinkley: Was it you who took the vial I was investigating?

The next message froze her heart.

Guess Who: Why Don’t You Come Find Me??? ;)

 

*

 

“Scooby, wake up!” Velma hissed at the sleeping dog.

With a yawn, Scooby stretched and got up.

“Relma? Rhy are…?” he was interrupted by Velma putting a finger to her lips.

“The ghost is here” she whispered.

Scooby registered what she said, and shivered. He knew it was time to begin the search for the ghost. Velma opened the bedroom door, and began to move slowly onto the landing. Scooby slinked after her. When she got to the landing, she flicked the switch on the wall. Nothing happened. The house stayed in darkness. Scooby gulped. Velma took a deep breath.

“Come on Scoob. We’ve got to go and find them” Velma sighed.

Her phone beeped. She checked it.

Guess Who: Awwwww Why Did You Stop Talking?   
Guess Who: Or Are You On Your Way?

She grunted and responded.

Velma Dinkley: Where are you?  
Guess Who: Come Find Me ;)

Slipping her phone back into her pocket, she crept down the corridor. Scooby padded down behind her. The house was silent, no lights on at all.

“There must be a power cut. Either that, or they cut the power”

“Or it’s the… rhost!” Scooby shivered.

Velma motioned for Scooby to follow her down the hall. Where could he be? 

“Scooby, check the lab, I’ll head up here” she indicated to the staircase leading up to their trophy room.

Scooby whimpered as he approached the door to the lab. This was where she last saw the clown. What if he’s there now? Scooby pushed open the door with a shivering hand. The dark lab sat in front of him. In the darkness in front of him, he saw a glint just out of sight. Scooby slowly made his way forward. The object gradually made its way into view. A single balloon. It was tied to a music box. Scooby trembled as he approached it. When he came into touching distance, the music box began to play. It began to play a quiet, tinny version of generic circus music, while opening and spinning around. Scooby was almost fixed to the spot as he watched the music box spin. A miniature figure began to rise out of the box. Scooby squinted at it and gasped when he saw what it was; it was Velma. Except she was lying down, with an X on both her eyes. Scooby leapt into action. He had to warn Velma. He launched himself over the lab table, but before he made it to the door, the music box ended and the balloon popped. The door slammed shut just as he got to the door, and he slammed into it. He pulled and pushed the door, but it was locked shut. He slammed on the door, yelling to warn Velma.

But it was too late.

Velma was making her way up the stairs to their trophy room. The ‘trophy room’ was a room full of mementos and artefacts from previous mysteries. Costumes, and masks, and various items from old mysteries – the diving suit from Captain Cutler’s Ghost, the projection reel that contained the spaceship footage from the Kooky Space Kook. Proud achievements that all the gang had made together. It was a room full of the best moments of their lives. But in complete darkness, the room was a hellish landscape full of terrifying figures. The room was almost pitch black, the only light in the room coming from the moonlight shining through the windows. Velma scanned the room, looking for signs of him. She made her way around the glass cases containing various trinkets. She took out her phone.

Velma Dinkley: You’re here aren’t you  
Guess Who: Come A Little Closer

Velma stepped slowly through the room until she reached the centre of the room. She messaged him one last time.

Velma Dinkley: Where. Are. You?

The “ding” of the messenger notification echoed through the empty room. It didn’t come from her phone. She saw the light of a phone screen light up in the darkness on the other side of the room. Her eyes fixated on it, she moved towards it like a moth to a flame. The phone itself was sitting on a chair. It was a simple smartphone, the messenger app open. In the text bar, a message had been typed, but not sent. She leant over and read it.

“Look Behind You”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry for the lack of an update, moving into university has been tough and I've had a lot of other things going on, but will definitely try to keep updates coming


	9. Ensnared with fear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Velma is lured into the trophy room in their own home by a shadow of her fear. What secrets will it reveal?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, sorry for the really late update. 
> 
> I was really busy over Christmas but I'm happy to be back at uni and can continue to update this. Thank you all so much for staying with it, and I hope you enjoy reading!

Velma spun around to face the empty room. Or not so empty room, as it would seem. The moonlight hit the costumes that stood around the room, throwing long shadows up the walls and along the floor. 

“Why are you doing this?” Velma called into the room.

She got a chuckle in return.

“Why us? Why are you doing this to us?” she continued, spinning round as she walked to see in every direction. She had made her way to the large rows of glass cases that contained smaller artefacts retrieved from their mysteries. She was about to turn away when…

Tap. Tap. Tap.

It came from the other side of the glass. She squinted into the case, trying to peer into the darkness behind it. She fell back when the face loomed out of the darkness.

The sneering smile of that ceramic clown mask. Its empty eyes stared at her, as that smile promised nothing but evil. It cocked its head to the side as she stared at it, breathing rapidly. 

“You… what do you want?” Velma breathed.

“What I want is simple,” the Clown’s voice was heavily distorted, simultaneously echoing and deep yet mixed with whispery and light tones.

“I want a sacrifice. We demand a sacrifice” 

“A sacrifice?” Velma asked, standing up again and facing the Clown.

“We grow restless without one. We desire sustenance”

“Why?”

“We have been here for longer than you could ever imagine. We have more power than you could ever imagine. Power over the mind not seen anywhere else. We require something to feed our power.   
Without a sacrifice, we seek one ourselves. And we don’t care who it might be”

“So, you’re trying to scare us into giving you a sacrifice? How will that work?”

“Fear is a terribly powerful incentive. People do crazy things when scared. It can overpower someone’s own sense of thought, cause them to lose control” 

“What are you getting at?” Velma huffed, angry now.

“The Hill is calling out Velma Dinkley. The Hill has been opened, and now we are restless. We will not be silenced or ignored. We demand a sacrifice, or we will forever curse this town with fear”

“If we sacrificed something, would you leave the town?” Velma asked, before shaking her head; did she really just consider sacrificing someone, for her own reassurance?

“The greater the sacrifice, the longer we leave. Animals were abundant and easy when this was but a small village. We were satisfied then. But now,” another chuckle, “Now, that wouldn’t be enough”

The Clown leant forwards, hands pressed against the glass.

“We demand… a human”

“A… human?” Velma choked out.

“A human soul holds much power. It holds so much potential. So much energy. A human soul would quench us for many, many years” the Clown let out a low laugh. 

“But…”

“Make the choice. But make it fast. As I said; we’re growing restless”

The Clown looked to the left. Velma did the same. A wooden box sat on the floor. She looked up, and gasped in shock. A grand piano was hanging by a wire above it. She could see a candle burning away at it. It would fall within minutes. She was confused until she heard the cry.

“RELMA! RELP!!!” came a muffled wail from within. Thumps and bumps signified the attempts of an escape.

“Scooby!” 

A quick look back to the glass told her that the Clown had disappeared, so all her attention was focused on this box. She ran over to it, moving right under the path of the piano. The wire was steadily getting thinner, and thinner. The box was covered in locks and chains, with a single digital lock on the front. A keypad sat under a blinking screen that said: “😉 “ 

She grunted, and punched in a load of random words that could work.

‘Clown’  
‘Fear’  
‘Elana’, ‘Burrows’, ‘Elana Burrows’

Nothing.

Sweat was fogging up her glasses. Time was running out. She needed to rescue him. And fast. But no words were working. She typed all of the gang’s names. Nothing. Tears pricked at her eyes. Scooby…

The candle continued to burn…

 

*

 

Scooby slammed his body against the door. It rattled but held fast. He growled bunching up all his strength; Velma could be in trouble, he needed to get to her. He heard a chuckle from outside. Looking through the glass, he yelped out.

The sneering porcelain mask of a haunting clown was staring down at him from the top of the staircase. Empty eyes locked with his, the clown waved down at him slowly, his unmoving smile filling Scooby with dread. Who was he? He watched as the entity slowly raised his arm… and pointed. To behind Scooby.

The fur on Scooby’s neck began to rise. Somehow, he knew what was coming… but he didn’t want to accept it. Clenching his teeth, he turned to look where the being pointed. 

He knew it.

The Shaman stood at the other end of the lab, his painted face a contortion of horror and anger. Congealed blood caked his arms, hands and body, and the dirty scraps of cloth that he wore as attire was discoloured and ripped. In one hand he held that gruesome ceremonial knife, and in the other a hideous bone staff. A gurgling growl arose from behind the mask, as he lumbered forwards over the lab desks, knocking vials of water everywhere. It was now or never.

Scooby slammed once more against the door, throwing all of his weight at it. 

Crack

Once more should do it.

The shaman continued to clamber towards him.

Scooby braced himself once more.

 

*

 

Velma had pretty much given up. Now sobbing uncontrollably, she was desperately typing in random letters into the keypad. Scooby had been yelping this whole time, the piano creaking ominously above. 

The rope was wearing thin. A minute more and it would fall.

“I’m sorry Scooby. I’m so sorry” she sobbed

She hugged the box.

“I won’t leave you. I’ll stay here, I promise”

She heard footsteps behind her. She didn’t care anymore – she wasn’t leaving her friend.

The footsteps bound closer.

Just as the string snapped.

 

*

 

Velma opened her eyes. 

She had been tackled by something, knocking her away from the box just as the piano fell. 

Still crying, she looked at her aggressor. 

“Scooby?” she whispered.

The dog lay next to her, panting in exhaustion and relief. 

She sat up. The piano had completely crushed the box, revealing its contents…

Nothing…

There was nothing in it. 

Getting shakily to her feet, she stumbled over to the crash. On the other side of the keypad was a small box. A speaker. It had been playing the noises all along! Angry now, Velma marched back over to Scooby.

“That damn clown! He tricked me, and nearly killed me. This is getting more and more dangerous as it goes. We have to meet with the rest of the gang and solve this mystery quickly”

Something caught her eye as it flashed. The phone. The phone the clown had used. The message log was still open, showing the messages he had sent to her. But this wasn’t just some cheap phone; this was a smartphone with a custom case. What ghost or demonic entity would need a phone case?

 

*

 

“I can’t believe that happened! It’s good to know Scooby was there to help, and that you’re both OK!” Daphne cried.

She had been hugging the both of them for about 5 minutes now. Fred was scratching his chin while looking at the phone.

They were now at the police station. After the incident, they called the police. This was a police matter after all; a break in and an attempted murder. The officers had collected pictures of all the damages and took notes from what Velma and Scooby said. Most were sceptical about the sightings of the clown and the Shaman, but interestingly, some of them spoke to them individually, stating that they believed them. And more importantly, they had seen things too. This mystery was expanding. Now townspeople had been experiencing these apparitions. 

Fred sat down next to Velma.

“So, the clown was using this to message you?”

Velma nodded. 

“But who’s phone is it? He’s a ghost!” Daphne exclaimed.

“That’s what I want to know” Velma nodded.

“Like, is there a contact list? Pictures?” Shaggy asked.

“Yeah but the pictures are just of this kid” Fred selected a picture and showed him.

“Hey!” Shaggy exclaimed, “That’s that kid from the pier the other day!” 

“Really?” the others gasped.

“Yeah, he bumped into us and dropped his laptop. Come to think of it, it looked like he was doing something very shifty on that laptop. It looked like hacking”

“Hmm” Velma mused, “I think we have to have a chat with this kid”


End file.
